LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Before his flight left for Florida on Monday morning, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman thumbed a congratulatory text message to Joe Torre, his team’s manager during four World Series championships. Torre had just been elected to the Hall of Fame, and was “right where he belongs,” he said.

His No. 6 jersey will, at some point, hang in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, Cashman said. The team has yet to hand out the number to any other on-field personnel since Torre's departure from the organization after the 2007 season.

“I don’t think we have to discuss it with him,” Cashman said. “We can do it. We haven’t given it out for a reason. It’s been tucked away for quite some time. At some point, that’ll happen. No doubt about it. Clearly it’s already unofficially happened.”

Here is the rest of what Cashman had to say this afternoon, including Robinson Cano’s departure, Brett Gardner’s trade value and the club’s needs.

Anything productive going on so far?

“Still trying. We’ve got, as you keep hearing, we’ve got more work to do. We’ve been throwing a lot of ideas a lot of different ways. Still trying to work at it.”

Do you feel the players you’ve acquired can replace the offensive production of Robinson Cano?

“I’m trying to get our offense back to where it was, or where we’re used to having it, the top two or three offenses in the game. That’s with a collection of talent. We need more work there. We need to keep going. Obviously, we’re going to benefit from having (Mark Teixeira) back. I still don’t know who’s playing second. I still don’t know who’s really playing third yet.

“There’s still going to be a question mark at shortstop, even though we know who the player is. If everything comes down the way we hope, the outfield will be much improved. Catching will be much improved. But I’ve still got work on the second and third side of this thing.”

Are you in the market for a third base because you’re assuming you won’t have Alex Rodriguez?

“I’m actively looking to make sure we’re protected. And that I can run somebody out there that we’re comfortable with, and not be in a position where we were last year.”

Could Kelly Johnson fill that role?

“It could be. Yeah. Kelly could be playing second for us. He could be playing third for us. It’d be nice to get a right-handed platoon situation somewhere to cover us. But there’s no guarantees, either.”

Is Mark Reynolds still a possibility?

“I’ve talked to Mark’s agent. I’m talking to everybody. Shoot high, shoot low. At some point, I’ve just got to make sure I’m better than what I was dealing with . . . We had a lot of hard triers last year. But we need to improve on the results.”

With second and third, is that an either/or situation with Johnson? If you sign a second baseman, Johnson handles third or vice versa?

“We like Kelly because obviously a left-handed bat. He has power, and he has flexibility. He’s more of a bat than a defender. But you can play him in the outfield, you can play him at second, you can play him at third. So there’s a comfort level knowing that we have an improved depth situation there that gives us some flexibility.

“But again, I would love to keep moving forward with additions if I can. Listen, it might not be in the short term. It might take a while. It might take entering the season. I just don’t know yet. We just wait and see how these conversations are going.

“I have thrown a lot of trade proposals. I’ve had a number of conversations on free agents. I just don’t know if it’s going to lead anywhere or not. That’s why we’re here.”

Have you found the prices on the free-agent infield market high?

“I don’t want to say. I just know that we’re trying to be involved with either market, as long as it fits where we’re at.”

Would a starting pitcher be more easily attainable through a trade right now?

“We certainly could sign a free-agent starter. Signing one might be easier than trading for one. It’s just we’re trying to find the right one.”

Were you surprised to see Cano’s 10-year deal?

“I just know that, listen, everybody has pressure points. And those pressure points can make you step up and do certain things that you might not normally do to try to solve problems. And that’s the beauty of free agency.

“Every year teams come and go. A couple years ago the Marlins stepped up and made a big splash with some of their signings. The Angels have done it. Clearly we’re typical ones who do it. Seattle now has done it.

“I think it’s time and place. Timing is everything. And it’s where are you at in the timing, and your effort. Seattle is obviously in a position where they’re trying to step up and get some things accomplished. Sometimes you have to step up and go outside of your comfort zone to get some things accomplished.

“They got a great player. We know it more than anybody. We had Robbie Cano. He was a good as they come. He was on a Hall of Fame path with us. And hopefully for them, he’ll continue that Hall of Fame path. Because that’s what he was for us.

“The teams change on a yearly basis. We’ve had a lot of great players that we’ve imported. We’ve had a lot of great players that have been homegrown. And we’ve traded for great ones, and we’ve traded great ones. So it’s just the nature of the beast.

“It’s a tremendous situation for him and his family. It’s something obviously he put himself in a position to earn. We took a run at him from last spring training. And we were hoping we could retain him. But clearly, he made the right decision by playing it out, and hitting the market and testing the market. Because look what’s happened, for him and his family.”

Is Carlos Beltran official?

“No.”

Has he taken a physical?

“I wouldn’t say.”

How do you see the DH at-bats breaking down?

“We’ll have a lot of candidates. We’ll have guys that I think Joe will be able to use. There will be no set outfield, if everything shakes out the way the winter should go. I think that Joe (Girardi) will utilize the DH category to give everybody a rest.”

How much harder is it to improve the farm system when you keep giving up first-round picks in free agency?

“Well, the one thing, we did a lot of studies. To really get access to that high, high end amateur talent, the difference makers, you’ve usually got to be picking in the first 10 picks, typically. That usually is the case. Listen, there’s still good players throughout the draft. You see that. There’s examples all over the place.

“I’d like to have our draft picks. But it’s just not the way the system is set up. It is what it is.”

With Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte retiring, and Cano gone, how much do you think about their clubhouse presence?

“Always think about that.”

Is there a bigger void now?

“Losing Mariano and Andy, the leadership that Mariano and Andy brought, that stuff is not replaceable. And that’s nothing about Robbie. But Mariano and Andy have been leaders here for a long time. They were invested as players, and they were invested in their teammates.

“And not everybody’s wired that way. Some people are just invested in ‘I’ll do my job, and if I do my job, everyone else does their job, the whole team will do well.’ But Mariano and Andy, they would go above and beyond to invest in their teammates, and try to work with them away from the field, after a game, well before anybody showed up at the ballpark, on the phone, in the winter time, recruiting. They were different. Different than most players.”

Do you have the sense you can leave here with another player?

“I don’t know. I’d like to be able to leave with a number of players. I just don’t know that’ll happen or not yet.”

Do you have the financial resources available for a big-contract pitcher?

“I wouldn’t say.”

In discussions on Gardner, has anything piqued your interest?

“We didn’t sign Ellsbury to allow us to trade Gardner. That boomerang came around quick, and everybody’s made phone calls on Gardy. I think we have an obligation to hear what anybody’s interest happens to be. But we’re not shopping Gardy.”

Are there any other trade assets you’re getting calls about?

“Yeah. I mean, obviously, there’s different values, clearly. I hear stuff on Gardy. I hear stuff on Nova. I’m getting calls on Gary Sanchez. I got calls on Murphy.”

With the age and injury history of your outfielders, is it more important to keep a player like Gardner around?

“I think that fourth outfielder is always important, regardless. There’s three every-day spots. And if somebody goes down, you need that fourth and fifth guy to be able to fill in.”

When you spoke with Joe Bick, Gardner’s agent, what did he say about Gardner’s reaction?

“He said ‘Am I going to play center field or not?’ That was basically one of the questions. So I said ‘We’ll see.’”

Do you have an ideal alignment yet?

“No, I haven’t really talked about it. Left field is a center field at Yankee Stadium in itself. So we’ve got two guys that can play center field, just like we’ve been used to. We had Gardner and Granderson. Now it’s Gardy and Ellsbury.”

Is there a chance Ellsbury wouldn’t play center?

“Again, we haven’t talked about it.”

Does the fact that your young outfielders struggled this year hurt your ability to deal them?

“Yeah. I mean, in terms of them, yeah. If they’re to be used as trade chips, their most recent season or seasons does not increase their trade value.”

Have you found that to be the case so far?

“I guess I answered that.”

Do you feel your lineup has more depth and balance than it did before?

“Than last year? Yeah. We’ve upgraded at first, because Teixeira’s supposed to be healthy. We’ve upgraded at catcher. If everything goes through, our outfield will be upgraded. If Derek Jeter comes back, our shortstop will be upgraded. I still don’t know about second and third.”

Was this part of your calculation with letting Cano go?

“I didn’t want to let Robbie go. But we gave him our best bullet at $175 million for seven. And someone took him from us for a lot more.”

Is the reason you wouldn’t go longer on a deal because of your past history with those type of deals?

“No, just the comfort level. Just the comfort level. That’s all. Everybody can see that he’s a great player. It’s just properly assessing value is always difficult. And as we see on a yearly basis, two teams can be fighting over the same player and come out with rather different offers for the player. And that’s obviously what happened here.

“And who knows if there was anybody in between, or all that stuff. But Seattle sees the same thing as we do. There’s no hidden ball tricks here. You’ve got one of the tremendous players in the game today. He plays hard, and he plays all the time. And he produces.

“It just comes down to, if the numbers are right, he had $240 million reasons why he should go to Seattle. And if I was him, I would have done the same thing.”

Are you looking for a closer?

“In terms of the bullpen, we need to improve all the options. So when people compete in spring training for slots in the bullpen, hopefully it’ll be pretty obvious who slots where. There’s nobody I’m anointing as our closer. Let’s put it that way.”

The closers who are on the market will sign for closer money. Are you looking for a closer?

“I’m looking to improve our bullpen. I’m looking for guys to come in and compete for that spot.”

Do you need a lefty reliever?

“Yep. We need lefties. We have lefties. But we’d like to improve if we can.”

Is the $189 million goal now a non-factor unless Rodriguez’s suspension is upheld?

“Go to the archives. Use Hal’s comments that you’ve asked him 1,000 times over.”

But given your current payroll commitments.

“Go to the archives. And whatever Hal says, it still applies.”

Is Boone Logan still in play for you?

“Yeah. We’re talking to Booney. But we’re talking to a lot of people.”

Does Michael Pineda have a chance to break camp in the rotation?

“He’s coming in healthy, competing for a rotation spot.”

Where is Manny Banuelos right now?

“He’s healthy. The expectation would be he’d be at Triple A.”

Do you look at Pineda as something of a wild card?

“He’s healthy. But he’s still a question because of what he’s coming from. So I can’t represent that ‘Hey, you’re going to see X, Y, Z.’ I can’t say that. I hope we see everything we want to see. But in fairness to him, and in fairness to throwing BS, I can’t say that.”

You can’t plan on him being that guy yet.

“We can hope. We hope to get what we traded for. But we’ve just got to wait and play it out.”

What reports were you getting on him late in the year?

“Healthy. Healthy. He’s gone home. He’s in great shape. I think Gil Patterson saw him a month ago, and he’s still in great shape, down in the Dominican, while our instructional league was going on down there. All good. But those are just words.

“All good means pitching seven innings and knocking the bats out of those guys’ hands at the big-league level. That’s all good. The rest of it is just filling your articles with lines that are meaningless.”

Thoughts on Joe Torre’s Hall of Fame induction?

“I think it’s great . . . Obviously deserved. Not unexpected. Thought he should be a first-ballot, and he was. He’s right where he belongs. He did amazing work when he was with us. And you back up his playing career before that.”

Do you think this will expedite the discussion to retire his number?

“I don’t think we have to discuss it with him. We can do it. We haven’t given it out for a reason. It’s been tucked away for quite some time. At some point, that’ll happen. No doubt about it. Clearly it’s already unofficially happened.”

Curtis Granderson joked that real New Yorkers are Mets fans. Any response?

“Well, I understand why he would say that. Listen, the great thing about city is there’s room for both. Mets got a good player. They really did. I really wish they would have been able to see him this past year, and put up more numbers. He just had freak injuries. But we appreciate the time we had with him. And he’ll help the Mets. Good man, to boot. A real good man.”